Chaeyoung walks into the 7-Eleven store and only has one thought in mind, snacks. And well, the new Netflix show that she wants to watch. Chaeyoung grabs a basket and makes her way around the store, putting things in her basket that she feels necessary for the binge of the show, and things that she just needs in her apartment, like, a whole box of ramen seems necessary. 

Chaeyoung has been anticipating the series for a long time, her best friend Jeongyeon and her girlfriend Mina keep talking about the games and books, and how detailed the world is. The series seems to be all that the three girls talk about when in each others company, and Chaeyoung will not be the last one to watch this series, nothing will get in her way of binging it all tonight. 

As she walks around a corner to another aisle she starts humming to herself and talking to herself about the various chips on selection. Chaeyoung places the basket on the floor and crosses her arms, tapping a finger on her elbow as her eyes scan the rows of chips, seemingly looking for inspiration and desire all in one. She curses herself for not having an absolute favourite chip flavour as she looks at the rows. 

“I’ll decide on them last.” She mutters to herself, before turning around and looking at the candy and sweets on display. Her eyes lit up exactly like a small child would looking at the selection on display.

Chaeyoung hears a loud clatter to her right and she whipped her head around towards the source of the sound and locks eyes with the cashier of the store. Both girls stare wide-eyed at each other before the cashier drops down under the counter, while Chaeyoung feels her cheeks heat up at how utterly cute the cashier looked. Chaeyoung glances back towards the counter, only seeing the cashier’s hand come up and place bottles of Coca-Cola onto the counter.

Chaeyoung shakes her head a little as if to clear her head, as she looks back at the candy on offer, she grabs a couple different bars before spinning back around towards the chips. She settles on some foreign brand, the flavour stating ‘Salt and Vinegar’. Chaeyoung shrugs her shoulders, throwing a few bags of chips into her basket. 

She looks back over to the counter but the cute cashier girl is either still tidying up or is somewhere else. 

In retrospect, Chaeyoung realises she should have done the soda first but here she is throwing Coca-Cola bottles into her basket onto her bags of chips. She looks over again, still no sign of the cashier. Chaeyoung subconsciously grabs some cartons of strawberry milk as well. 

Chaeyoung takes one last wander around the store, she has forgotten the layout of the store, the last time she was in her was with Jeongyeon a few months ago, just after Jeongyeon came over to Chaeyoung’s, blind drunk wanting snacks. So Chaeyoung had pulled a barely moveable Jeongyeon into the store, and watched as she moved on autopilot grabbing snack as she went. But that was months ago and Chaeyoung can’t remember where the popcorn buckets were kept.

Chaeyoung walks up towards the cashier counter and looks for anyone that works there, after nobody appeared Chaeyoung pouted before searching for the popcorn herself. Chaeyoung walked up and down each aisle twice but still couldn’t find the popcorn, she sighed as she walked back towards the cashier counter with her basket, resigned to the fact that she won’t have popcorn. 

Chaeyoung places her basket up onto the desk and waits for someone, anyone that works there to serve her. She just wants to go home!

“Oh sorry,” a bright voice comes from the right, towards where Chaeyoung assumes is a stockroom or something of that sort. “I’ll be a few seconds, I just need to stack these boxes.” The voice huffs, and quietly curses. Chaeyoung looks and can see the shadow that belongs to the voice, she watches their movements, watches as it seems to be that they are struggling. 

Maybe I should help them.

A crash comes from the direction of the room and Chaeyoung feels her body take her there before her brain can catch up.

I definitely should help.

Chaeyoung looks around the corner and she immediately feels sorry for the slender girl, she must be new and been left herself. 

“Here, let me help,” Chaeyoung says as she quickly begins to pick the boxes off the girl and stack them in a corner. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” She questions the girl once the boxes are away, offering her hand out to the cashier. 

“Oh, thank you. You didn’t need to help, this is embarrassing,” The girl replies as she places her hand onto Chaeyoung’s outstretched hand and all Chaeyoung can notice is how soft her hand is. “I hope nobody watches the CCTV.” The girl giggles as she brushes off her clothing and straightens her shirt. 

“I’ll be sure to watch out for you on Youtube compilations then,” Chaeyoung quips to her. “But are you sure you’re okay?” 

“I am, thank you...” the cashier trails off, seemingly looking for Chaeyoung’s name, a smile on her face as she searches Chaeyoung’s face for an answer.

“Chaeyoung.” 

“Sana, and I guess I should check you out, huh?” Sana says as she walks towards the cashier desk. “Wait, no no, I mean- you know, check out your items.” 

Chaeyoung chuckles even though she can feel her cheeks blushing because she honestly wouldn’t mind Sana checking her out. 

Sana runs her hand through her hair, mumbling something about how she should just ‘shut up’. Sana sighs before she begins scanning Chaeyoung’s snacks and placing them in a bag for her.

“You’ve got some feast here, hosting a party?” Sana asks Chaeyoung, glancing up at the girl.

“Oh,” Chaeyoung rubs the back of her neck and chuckles. “No, I’m not that popular.” Chaeyoung replies back. But Sana raises her eyebrows, implying she doesn’t believe her. “Okay, okay. This-this is all for me, I’m gonna binge a series.” Chaeyoung didn’t think her blush could get stronger but she could feel her neck and ears burning at this point.

But it seemed Sana didn’t notice or just didn’t mention it, because her eyes lit up and immediately asked Chaeyoung what series she was going to watch.

“I’m going to watch The Witcher.” Chaeyoung smiles as she takes out her wallet to pay for the total of her snack spree.

“Oh, I’ve heard a lot about that. I was going to watch it with my best friend Momo, but since I just moved here and she lives back in Japan, we just can’t do that.” Sana replies as she rings Chaeyoung up, a pout evident on her lips as she talks about Momo.

“Oh, you’re Japanese? You’re Korean is really good!” Chaeyoung compliments her as she takes her change from Sana’s soft hands.

“Thanks, I’ve been studying it for a few years since I knew I’d be moving out here with my parents. I just miss my home, it’s only been a month since we moved so everything is still so new,” Chaeyoung listens to Sana talk, she understands how the girl feels as she and Jeongyeon befriended Mina when she first moved and had gone through exactly what Sana was going through. “Even though I have my parents here, I just feel lonely. I haven’t had the chance to make any friends and not having Momo here just doesn’t feel right.” 

Sana sighs as she thinks about her home and best friend, wondering what Momo is currently doing, the two of them were joined at the hip. You’d never see Sana without Momo and vice-versa. 

“Well, do you want to binge the series with me? You don’t have to but my best friend Jeongyeon, her girlfriend Mina went through the same thing you’re going through, so I get how you feel in some way.” Chaeyoung offers Sana, she knows she shouldn’t feel hopeful, Chaeyoung has known Sana for less than an hour but the girl just radiates happiness and kindness. Chaeyoung can’t help but feel drawn to her.

Hell, people have hooked up with someone without even talking before. It’s not like that’s Chaeyoung’s intention.

“I don’t finish my shift for another hour, I don’t want to make you wait.” Sana says guiltily, she really does want to join Chaeyoung.

“I don’t mind waiting, besides I never got the popcorn so I can always try another store to kill some time.” The chime above the store’s door rings as a customer walks through and heads straight for the counter.

“Okay. One hour, Chaeyoung.” Sana’s eyes glint as she looks at Chaeyoung, trying to look threatening but Sana is as intimidating as a puppy. Chaeyoung just chuckles as she walks out of the store and goes on a mission for fifty-five minutes to find popcorn.

…

One hour and two minutes later, Chaeyoung is back at the store only to find Sana resting against the counter.

“You’re late.” Sana giggles as Chaeyoung rushes through the door.

“Ah, come on. By two minutes.” Chaeyoung whines at Sana, as she pushes herself off the counter and takes a key out of her pocket to close the store.

“Hhhm, I suppose I’ll let you off the hook, just this once since you’re cute,” Chaeyoung can feel her blush flaring back up again, she hopes that it won’t be a common theme when she’s around Sana. If Jeongyeon finds out she blushes this easily she’ll never hear the end of it. “Lead the way.” Sana says to Chaeyoung after she’s locked up the store.

The two girls walk along the street, side by side as they make causal talk for the twenty minute walk it takes to get to Chaeyoung’s apartment. They laugh and giggle at some stories they tell each other and the random facts that come with the many questions they ask each other. 

“Here we are,” Chaeyoung declares as they arrived at her apartment, she punches in the code to open the main door before walking up the four flights of stairs to get to her door. “I hope you don’t mind cats? I share this apartment with Jeongyeon and her cat Bomb stays with us.” 

“I love cats!” Sana practically squeals in delight as her eyes light up at the mention of a pet. “I never had a pet in Japan, so it’s always nice seeing someone else's pets.”

Chaeyoung opens the door and lets Sana in first before closing the door behind them, it locking behind her as it closes.

“Jeong? You home?” Chaeyoung shouts, waiting for a few seconds before shrugging and taking her shoes off. “Oh, you can try Jeongyeon’s slippers, see if they fit.” 

Walking through the apartment and dumping the snacks on the coffee table, Chaeyoung strolls into the kitchen to top up Bomb’s water and food for the night, knowing that Jeongyeon’s cat gets hungry at night for some bizarre reason.

“Oh my goodness.” Sana says as she lays eyes on Bomb, walking over slowly and crouching down, letting her hand out slowly for Bomb to sniff and decide if Sana is safe enough. After a few moments Bomb rubs his head on Sana’s hand, allowing her to scratch behind his ears.

“I’d say make yourself at home but Bomb seems to like you enough already.” Chaeyoung laughs as she walks through to see Sana and Bomb bonding already. Chaeyoung plops down onto the sofa and turns the TV on and launches Netflix, opening the bag she brought home from the store and takes out all the snacks she bought. 

“So,” Sana trails off, not really knowing where she was going to take the conversation, she’s never usually one to run out of things to talk to but her words are failing her today. Chaeyoung looks over her shoulder slightly towards Sana, indicating that she is listening to whatever Sana was going to say. “Uh, I’m sorry,” she laughs. “I didn’t realise how awkward this could be.”

“It’s okay, I wasn’t expecting a flowing conversation, don’t worry about it. Your company is appreciated in silence or conversation.” Chaeyoung smiles at Sana, her dimple showing in her cheek and it makes her look infinitely younger. “How about we start the show and see if conversation flows from there?” Chaeyoung offers to Sana. Sana nods and smiles, grabbing a bag of chips on the table and opening them, offering it to Chaeyoung first.

The two girls watched the show and ate their snacks until the wee hours of the next morning, they finished binging the show and decided to talk about it a little more after it was finished. At some point throughout the night, Chaeyoung can’t exactly remember how or when but she ended up cuddled into Sana for the last two episodes, neither of them seemed to mind so she stayed there even when they were discussing the show.

Chaeyoung was talking about how the timeline was set during the show, it wasn’t until she got no response but steady breathing behind her did she turn around. Chaeyoung felt a smile tug at her lips as she looked to see a peaceful Sana sleeping, her head dropping slowly down to her chin and gentle breaths coming out of her nose. A light fuzzy feeling fills Chaeyoung’s chest as she turns back around slowly and rests back into Sana’s body, arms gently tightening their hold on Chaeyoung’s. 

Just as Chaeyoung feels herself drifting off to sleep, she feels Sana gently place her head on top of her own and that light fuzzy feeling she had earlier, explodes inside of her chest.

Three hours later, the sound of keys jingling into a lock alert Bomb to someone’s presence in the apartment, as Jeongyeon steps foot inside and closes the door behind her quietly. She quietly greets Bomb and scratches his head before walking into the apartment, placing her keys in the bowl and taking her shoes off.

She walks into the livingroom and hears quiet music, she glances over and sees Chaeyoung sleeping on the couch before she walks into the kitchen and places the leftover cheesecake she shared with Mina into the fridge. As Jeongyeon closes the fridge, it’s as if a lightbulb went off in her head and she quickly opens the kitchen door and looks out towards the living room couch. There Chaeyoung is sleeping, that she saw, what Jeongyeon didn’t see was the girl sleeping behind Chaeyoung with her arms around her. 

“Who the ?” Jeongyeon whispers to herself before shaking her head and chucking while she goes to fill a glass with water, she heads to her bedroom and calls in a night. She’ll deal with the stranger tomorrow.